sub39h

Very cool. Love the football ground as well

agreed. I was stood at St Neots station about 2 months ago when there was some sort of technical fault. was waiting some 20 minutes for a train and saw the FS 91 and the DVT on different trains about 15 minutes apart. I may be mistaken but I'm sure I've seen one or t'other at Leeds as well. Leeds trains don't carry onto Scotland!

I was going to do that, but for starters I've given up hope on Hornby releasing it any time soon, when they do I have little faith they'll have done much more than add a DCC port and definitely not add lights, improve the body or change the pantograph. Even if they change the motor I doubt that it'll be economical to purchase either the MR exclusive or the Flying Scotsman set and cannibalise the motor but hopefully my solution is reasonable enough. It's definitely not cheap, but it should lead to a powerful and reliable loco with all wheel pick up. watch me eat my words now and Hornby release a brand new tooling with matching carriages in Swallow livery meaning my parts purchase and future skinned knuckles and frustration would go to waste!

I have that article - was slightly bemused by that suggestion! I myself am starting a project updating a Class 91. The aesthetics differences will be relatively minor - PH etchings and new pantograph and a little buffer beam detailing will be as far as it goes. I have plans to remotor it though. Some of the parts came today and I am liking how this may pan out. Will keep shtum at the minute because I'd like to create a how-to once I've gotten into it and worked out some niggles.

hi there i know your question has already been answered, but i find this website helpful when looking for the names of locomotives: http://www.railuk.info/members/diesel/loconame_search.php?offset=800&number_in=&name_in=&order=number,%20named&dir=Next keep up the good work

hmm - this made my ears prick up. when i lived in Stoke I used to drive past Blythe Bridge every day for 4 months when I worked at a GP practice in Cheadle in the Staffordshire Moorlands. recreating a Class 20 with NSE rakes as part of a train that used to leave from there may allow me to pay homage to an early part of my career. Certainly something I'll think about when I've finally got a layout (which I don't plan on giving a fixed location).

That's great everyone - thank you for your input. Love that photo of the Class 20 hauling an NSE Mk2. shame i don't have any NSE Mk2s in my fleet, only Mk1s! my "Summer excursion" fleet is a pair of Class 20s with 4 Regional Railways Mk2s that were Model Rail limited editions by Bachmann, with a blue/grey or two thrown in. Probably not strictly prototypical, but I'm unlikely to be able to field full rakes in my planned layout and getting hold of any more TSOs in the RR livery was proving tough/expensive. Hopefully they'll come back around in non limited edition form, but I guess it will be a while before Bachmann consider that as I'm sure they won't want to tread on Model Rail's toes.

Hi Rob Sorry for the late reply to this but I thought this thread was dead after 2 months of checking for a reply! A massive thank you for your in depth observations and commentary. In this batch for some reason there was an issue with the Swallow livery Class 89 so I didn't end up getting one in the end. I am still keen on one and your pictures have just added to my enthusiasm. Your collection looks great! Just let down by the decades-old Hornby 90 and 91 - both of which I am hoping will be replaced as I am after ones in RfD/RES and Swallow liveries respectively. Thanks again! S.

Just a quick update on this - sadly i think this is a battle we are losing. I spoke with the owner yesterday when I popped in and he feels that unless his rent stays the same he is likely to shut when his lease expires. I do urge people to pop in and not be put off by the disorganised nature of his shop. I've been visiting for a few months now and it even takes me quite a while to sift through and find things I'm after. Items that may interest someone that he has in stock at the minute: Bachmann Class 350 vinyl conversion to SWT Class 450 Bachmann Class 221 Virgin livery Bachmann DRS Class 66 Hornby Railroad Class 9F Cock o' the North Hornby Harry Potter train set Hornby Brighton Belle 1934 I'm sure there's lots more but that's all I can remember for now. Definitely worth a visit guys. He is also an unofficial service centre as well but seems to have a wealth of experience. (I have no financial affiliation with Northfields Model Shop - just a satisfied customer that wants to see my local-ish model shop live a little longer.)

i have nothing but respect for the creativity you've managed from what is an extremely tough diagnosis and treatment. i wish you all the best with your chemo and hope for a speedy recovery.

Hi guys, I purchased a Bachmann 47612 "Titan" last year, and was doing a Google image search to see up until when it wore this livery (can't find any more photos after 1989, but that's fine for my purposes). Anyway, I found this photo below of it at Sheffield in 1987 with a rake of NSE coaches. Many thanks to the photo taker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blackwatch55013/5544303705/in/photostream/lightbox/ Anyhow, was this a common occurrence? If so was there a dedicated set that served this purpose, or was it just a free-for-all? Many thanks in advance.

sorry to bump an old topic, but any more updates from this?

Sorry, i should have said "trains" rather than "locomotives". (I happen to be a fan of multiple units.) Point taken regarding your sequence, and I should not have assumed that there would have been a big gap between trains because you mentioned you wished to use a sequence. Also as I mentioned before I feel it was silly to tell you what you can or can't do with your own layout. But I still feel that the railway, and everything around it, is only there for the trains and a model would be relatively pointless (in my opinion) without them. I don't feel those visiting exhibitions are wrong in wanting to see the trains go by.

whilst i feel it is wrong for exhibitors to be told what they can and cannot do on their own layout, i also fail to see the point of "exhibiting" a layout (which would by my definition include exhibiting their rolling stock) and then only have a train come along every half an hour for the sake of prototypical operation. to me as a punter, i would want to see the trains go past, because at the end of the day it's the locomotives that make railways interesting. whilst i very much admire well made scenery and buildings, ultimately it isn't the reason i'm involved in the hobby. i imagine most people feel the same way. in regards to the OP, to me a "rivet counter" is a derogatory term for someone who doesn't have the social skills to know when their criticism is not welcome, is unwilling or unable to put across their criticism in a constructive manner or claims to know more than they actually do. i am a relative beginner to the hobby, having come back into it after a 15 year hiatus. i know very little about the prototype, and i look to those with more knowledge to guide me. i would not dare call these people rivet counters. to me personally , what looks best is an overall impression. just because some train ran here or there, or was scrapped the year before, or had different lettering doesn't really matter to me. and whilst i commend those who go into that level of detail, it is meaningless if the atmosphere of the layout is wrong in the first place. at the end of the day though it is a hobby, and i don't feel hobbies should be taken too seriously. if it's not fun it's not a hobby. some people get their kicks from seeing trains go around, others from making buildings, and other still from following the prototype. as long as everyone's having fun and nobody is trying to get in the way of others having fun, i don't see a problem with people counting rivets, or knowing the correct colour of tax discs or anything else that takes your fancy.

what a fantastic layout. i wish i had the space to build something as impressive

nowhere near my period or region of interest, but your layout is fascinating and the work top class. keep it up!

fan of the modern stuff myself, but either way my first reaction when seeing the station was "wow". well done!

That's brilliant thank you guys

thanks - so FFAs are the old Hornby ones (which i think are the same as the new Hornby Railroad)? where would i get S-Kits detailing packs from? they seem to still be trading but no website or contact that i can find

watching this thread with interest as i was wanting a set of containers for my planned layout set in the late 80s/early 90s. so i could use the Hornby KFAs, and the RealTrack FLAs if I modify them to 5 car "units". would these two types have ever run together?

hi there - i really like your work. however i had what may be a silly question. perhaps i'm missing the point, but why didn't you start with a 155 in the first place? Hornby made the WYPTE 155 a few years ago (R2108)

hi mate, he definitely has some stock in N gauge locos in the glass cabinet on the right as soon as you enter. i've also seen various bits of rolling stock as well. but how much i couldn't tell you as i model in OO so that's what i was looking out for. certainly most of his stock seems to be OO. best of luck

They were about a month ago. I rode that set

Just a further update to this and something worth considering - Hornby VEP bogies seem to be around the right dimensions (wheelbase 34.25mm, wheel diameter 13.5mm) and are available fairly inexpensively. Would have to fabricate a new mounting point, but could put one in each end and that should give it enough grunt to pull an entire train (i am basing this on one VEP being 4 cars and having a single motor bogie - so 2 motor bogies should be able to pull a full 2+8 train i'd imagine but I have no experience of this)

Haha yes it is a bit of a mess but there are some absolute gems to be found in there if you're willing to spend a bit of time. Tbh it's no worse than some other model shops I've been in! No doubt being in London doesn't help. However I think now that Hattons are having their hands forced by Bachmann to not undersell items things may change. haha i was wondering where those had gone. i was eyeing them up myself. glad they've gone to a good home though